I always felt smug when I heard about this happening to people because
I am religious about halyard control. Today though, as I was
straightening up for raising sail as a family shore party returned
from exploring an island, I heard a little "snick" and looked up just
in time to see the free end of the halyard disappear into the mast.

What the hell happened to the stopper knot? I remember putting it
back in after lubing the sail track last night and I always look for
it when I coil the halyard. There was a fair amount of family
participation today so maybe, "Untie that rope, the one in your hand,
not that one, the one in your hand, you know, the thing connected to
your arm, that one." got misinterpreted at some point. I know pilots
get so used to seeing things on preflights that their eyes sometimes
just skip over missing bolts. Maybe I really didn't put the knot back
in.

Whatever happened, it's probably going to be a $500 lesson by the time
I get the halyard back in. My mast is such a kludge of stuff inside
(next winter's project) that I doubt a weighted line fed in from the
top will go down the right way. I'm probably going to have to pull
the stick.

You can bet that halyard stopper knots are going to have the bitter
ends seized back to the standing part on my boats from now on. You
might want to seize yours tomorrow.

--

Roger Long